Sunday, March 8, 2009

Villa Backyard

Some shots of the villa backyard which has been transformed over the past couple of months...the ducks have gone (they became too much of a nuisance and are now resident in Villa 11)...and a horticultural aspect has replaced them.

First of all a shot of the newly veiled tomato plants...they were going very well and had actually grown from seeds...until a couple of very very hot days knocked them about and death was nigh...but they were just saved.

Recently we have admired the ripening of the tomatoes on a regular basis...but they were also admired, it seems, by the local bird-life...after overcoming the loss of several juicy ripe red tomatoes, a solution was found and the tomatoes are now firmly covered....


Here is a close-up of some of the tomatoes pre-veiling...


The roses had fallen into disrepair, but have now been saved, drastically pruned, trellis-ed and are now springing back into life...


Same with the hibiscus...


Some of the basil..also grown from seed...



This is another section of tomato plants...they are going like the clappers, although lack a little sunlight so haven't produced the fruit that the others one have...


But we aren't too far away....


And some newly re-planted tomato plants...there is a story to these plants. We use to feed the ducks a lot of tomatoes and it seems that the seed fell onto the ground and laid dormant until we completely renovated the backyard and whacked a load of soil on it...days later, tomato seedlings popped up, along with some pumpkin seedlings! After a month or so, more than 200 tomato seedlings dotted the new lawn! Prior to cutting the lawn for the first time, these were transplanted....


Here is a shot of the backyard with the roses and snazzy new lawn...

Looking forward to our first meal of tomato and basil in the coming weeks!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Aussie boys in Japan

The Aussie boys, led by the GGArmy stormed Tokyo over the past week...with the crescendo being in Yokohama on Wednesday night against the might of the Blue Samurai...a 0-0 result just in case you have been on the moon.

On the train to Yokohama...


Walking from the station to the pre-game function at the uniquely named Cafe Bar Funky...




And finally we are on our way to the stadium after a quiet day of consuming ale...




And in the stadium...




The boys on the park get things warmed up...Chippers and Culina...


Mile Jedinak and Jade North...


The great Schwarz...


Can't be in Canberra for the Kuwait game due to geographical disadvantage (well, not unless the Concorde gets going again and does an Abu Dhabi-Canberra direct flight)...next game for me is probably Aus v Qatar in Doha and Aus v Japan in Melbourne.

More stuff to come soon on the sights of Tokyo and wonderful Kyoto...